Editing Sherman Hemsley (section)

== South Philadelphia Roots ==

Sherman Alexander Hemsley was born on February 1, 1938, in Philadelphia, growing up in a South Philadelphia housing project where his mother worked as a factory worker. His childhood during World War II and the immediate postwar period occurred in a Philadelphia whose Black community was concentrated in specific neighborhoods whose limitations shaped both constraint and community. The working-class ethos he absorbed during these years would later inform his most famous characterization, George Jefferson's mix of achievement and insecurity recognizable to audiences who understood such origins.<ref name="gray">{{cite book |last=Gray |first=Herman |title=Watching Race: Television and the Struggle for Blackness |year=1995 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis}}</ref>

His Air Force service following high school provided experience beyond Philadelphia while his subsequent employment with the Philadelphia post office demonstrated the working-class trajectory that many Black Philadelphia men of his generation followed. His decision to pursue acting while employed by the postal service, studying at the Philadelphia Academy of Dramatic Arts, represented ambition that his stable employment might have discouraged. The late start this path required—he was in his thirties before significant roles arrived—provided the maturity that his breakthrough performance would demonstrate.<ref name="bogle"/>

His move to New York to pursue Broadway roles led to his casting in "Purlie" (1970), the musical that demonstrated his abilities to producers who would later cast him in television. The Philadelphia discipline his earlier life had instilled—showing up, working steadily, accepting what was available—served him during the years of struggle that preceded breakthrough. His origins in Philadelphia's working-class Black community remained visible in the authenticity he brought to characters whose ambitions exceeded their refinement.<ref name="gray"/>